CONCESSIONARY bus passes issued to thousands of pensioners are safe, a council leader insisted on this week.

Rumours of a proposed trade off between bus passes and more frequent bus services are being reported on national television, but there is no threat to the 13,500 issued by Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council across East Cleveland.

Coun Dave Walsh, leader of the council said: "We see these passes as offering freedom for old people to travel within the borough for a nominal fare.

"This prevents isolation and makes it both easy and convenient to travel to visit friends and family or do the shopping. They are a passport which prevents being confined in their homes."

He issued his guarantee on Tuesday following media reports that the passes had been put under threat following deliberations of the transport think tank, the Commission for Integrated Transport.

In fact, from next April, the borough council will be offering bus passes to men from the age of 60.

Coun Walsh said: "The Comm- ission has made a lot of interesting suggestions about increasing bus use and I would hope we could sit down with bus operators and see if any of them are applicable to our borough."

He added: "We do have a lot of people without the use of a car, and for them, and for people who could be tempted out of their car, we do need jointly to provide high quality bus operations and a high quality travelling environment."